1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to medium receiving devices that receive media to be discharged at a lower side in the gravitational direction and recording apparatuses that include the medium receiving device mentioned above.
2. Related Art
As one type of recording apparatuses, an ink jet printer has been widely known that performs recording on a recording-target medium (hereinafter, simply called a “medium”) fed out from a roll in which the medium has been wound and transported so as to pass through a recording section by ejecting a liquid from a recording head provided in the recording section, thereafter cuts the medium into a predetermined length, and discharges the cut medium.
This type of printer is provided with a medium receiving device that receives a medium, which is cut into a predetermined length and discharged after printing has been performed thereupon in a recording section, with a sheet-shaped medium holding member. That is, in the medium receiving device, the medium of the predetermined length is discharged and falls downward; the medium receiving device restricts the movement of the medium in a manner such that a restricting portion provided at the lower end side of a medium receiving surface, which is a sheet surface of the medium holding member, makes contact with the leading edge in a discharge direction of the medium after a part on the leading edge side in the discharge direction of the medium of the predetermined length has moved along the medium receiving surface by a predefined amount of length. The movement being restricted by the restricting portion, a predetermined amount of length of the medium is held on the medium receiving surface, while a part on the following edge side in the discharge direction of the medium is in a state that it hangs down from the upper end of the medium receiving surface toward a side which is separate from the medium receiving surface; as a result, the medium is held by the medium receiving device in an appropriate manner. Accordingly, in the case where the lengths in the discharge direction of the media that are discharged and fall downward are different from each other, it is necessary to change and adjust a contact position for the restricting portion that makes contact with the leading edge of the medium on the medium receiving surface in accordance with the respective lengths.
As a technique to change the above-mentioned contact position, for example, in JP-A-2010-215367, there is disclosed a technique in which a medium edge restricting member (butting member) that includes a restricting portion (second butting surface) capable of making contact with the leading edge in the discharge direction of a medium (sheet) is disposed so as to make contact with or separate from a medium receiving surface at an upper position relative to the other restricting portion (first butting surface) located at the lower end side of the medium receiving surface. In other words, such a technique is disclosed that selects and uses either the restricting portion (first butting surface) which restricts the movement of the medium by making contact with the leading edge in the discharge direction of the medium at the lower end side of the medium receiving surface or the restricting portion (second butting surface) which can make contact with the leading edge in the discharge direction of the medium at a position on the upper end side of the medium receiving surface relative to the contact position of the first butting surface, in accordance with the length in the discharge direction of the medium.
In JP-A-2010-215367, when the medium edge restricting member (butting member) is at a non-restricting position at which the medium edge restricting member (butting member) is not in contact with the medium receiving surface and does not restrict the movement of the medium with the restricting portion (second butting surface), the other restricting portion (first butting surface) makes contact with (catches) the leading edge in the discharge direction of the medium at the lower end side of the medium receiving surface. On the other hand, when the medium edge restricting member (butting member) is at a restricting position at which the medium edge restricting member (butting member) is in contact with the medium receiving surface and restricts the movement of the medium with the restricting portion (second butting surface), the medium to be discharged is made to be in slidingly contact with the medium edge restricting member (butting member) so that the leading edge of the medium is guided to the restricting portion (second butting surface). By changing the restricting portion (butting surface) being used as described above, the contact position at which the leading edge of the medium makes contact with the butting surface is changed. This makes it possible to adjust the length of a part on the leading edge side of the medium to be held on the medium receiving surface.
In general, in a recording apparatus that uses a medium being wound in a roll, a plurality of media having different lengths in a width direction orthogonal to the discharge direction of the media are used. Alternatively, a medium which is long in the width direction is used in some case. Accordingly, in a medium receiving device, a plurality of medium edge restricting members that restrict movement of the leading edge of the medium in the discharge direction are provided at predetermined intervals along the width direction of the medium. Further, for the sake of simplicity of the device, the above-mentioned plurality of medium edge restricting members provided along the width direction of the medium are generally moved together in an interlocking manner between a restricting position (catch position) and a non-restricting position (retreat position).
However, in the medium receiving device (sheet storage device) disclosed in JP-A-2010-215367, when the medium edge restricting member is at the restricting position, a gap is likely to be generated between the medium receiving surface (sheet guidance member) of the medium holding member and the medium edge restricting member (butting member). That is, the medium edge restricting members are moved together in an interlocking manner in the width direction orthogonal to the discharge direction of the medium to be discharged. Meanwhile, the medium receiving surface for receiving the medium is formed of a flexible sheet material such as cloth, for example. Accordingly, an end portion in the width direction of the medium receiving surface where the cloth, for example, is sewn to be prevented from coming loose, is prevented from expanding; on the contrary, the central portion where the cloth is not sewn, is not prevented from expanding. As a result, the medium receiving surface is bent because the central portion in the width direction thereof expands. This causes a gap to be generated between the medium receiving surface and the medium edge restricting member at the central portion even if the medium receiving surface is in contact with the medium edge restricting member at the end portions without a gap. Accordingly, because the leading edge in the discharge direction of the medium enters into the generated gap and is not guided from the medium receiving surface to the restricting portion included in the medium edge restricting member, there arises a problem that the medium is not held by the medium receiving device in an appropriate manner.
It is to be noted that such problem is not limited to the medium receiving device included in the ink jet printer described above; generally speaking, such problem has commonly occurred in medium receiving devices that receive media to be discharged at a lower side in the gravitational direction and recording apparatuses that include these medium receiving devices.